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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23508247">Choices</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Falling_Has_Never_Been_More_Fun/pseuds/Falling_Has_Never_Been_More_Fun'>Falling_Has_Never_Been_More_Fun</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Some Choices Have a Cascading Effect [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Batman - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Batfam being brothers, Bruce's A+ parenting, Dick coming to terms with his brothers being in a relationship, Difficult Decisions, I put Damian in a really messed up situation, Multi, Talia is a good mom, bad guy dies in like the first chapter, consequences of difficult decisions, i really don't like Ra's, recovery fic</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 12:20:17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,095</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23508247</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Falling_Has_Never_Been_More_Fun/pseuds/Falling_Has_Never_Been_More_Fun</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Damian reveals how he feels about Tim during a really bad situation and has to deal with consequences while healing physically.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Batfamily Members &amp; Selina Kyle, Cassandra Cain &amp; Damian Wayne, Dick Grayson &amp; Damian Wayne, Jason Todd &amp; Damian Wayne, Tim Drake &amp; Damian Wayne, Tim Drake/Damian Wayne</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Some Choices Have a Cascading Effect [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1691488</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>112</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Choices</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I have been writing this for years and I've finally decided that it isn't going to get any better if i continue to stare at it so here you go.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1"> </p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s2"> <b>Chapter 1; some choices have unforeseen consequences.</b> </span>
</p><p class="p3"><span class="s2"> <b>“</b> </span> <span class="s2"> <em>never ask if it can get worse. It can always be worse.”</em> </span></p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s2">Damian can’t choose. He can’t. But if he doesn’t choose he’ll lose both of them, because if nothing else his grandfather is a man of his word.</span>
</p><p class="p3">They wouldn’t even be in this situation if it wasn’t for Damien’s arrogance, his belief in himself. Grayson. Richard. <em>Dick</em>wouldn’t be hurt. Drake wouldn’t be held at gunpoint in a cage, Damian wouldn’t be presented with this impossible decision, he is sick, his stomach in knots to know that this is his fault.</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s2"> Timothy just looks resigned like Damien’s already signed his death warrant. Grayson is gutshot; bleeding out as Damian sits there and thinks. And he <em>cannot</em>choose. </span>
</p><p class="p3">Looking around searchingly his brain cataloguing all the ways that they are fucked. There is more than one gun trained on Drake; his heart and brain in the direct line of fire; blades obviously not going to hold the greatest detective. Grayson is incapacitated and even if he had his escrima sticks he is clearly unable to move, let alone fight, the pool of blood surrounding him steadily growing. And Damian tied to a pillar too well for even the thought of escape.</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s2">His eyes are drawn back to Drake’s the look of acceptance stark and unforgiving. He cannot tell what is worse; that Tim thinks so little of him that he could just condemn him to death so easily or that he is not fighting it. He wonders if it is the other man’s insecurities or his lack of faith in Damien that has led him to think this is an easy decision. He hopes in a perverse way that it’s the former.</span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s2">He thinks hysterically that if he was but a few years younger he’d scoff at himself. Him the true son, the blooded demon agonizing over what Timothy Drake thinks of him.</span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s2">Tearing his eyes away doesn’t help, it just brings Grayson’s blood-soaked body into sharp focus. It’s impossible this choice; the brother he adores or the man he has come to admire and respect. It would be so much easier if it was anyone else, than two with him and he <em>knows</em>that it is precisely because of who he is with, that Ra’s has presented him with this choice now.</span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s2">“So, have you decided? Which one will you save?” the words serve as a cruel taunt that even though he cannot choose between the two men, he does not have a choice. He cannot imagine a life without either of the men in front of him.</span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s2">Channeling Jason he snarls a “go fuck yourself,” false bravado all he has left. He is way past hysteria if he wasn’t scared out of his mind he’d be proud of himself for cussing out his grandfather.</span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s2"> If only he could distance himself from this he could think. Damian knows he’s smart enough to find a way out of this. He knows that help is probably already on its way. Cass or Barbara have probably already realized something isn’t right and is mobilizing the cavalry. Though he knows something incredibly vital was hit and he doesn’t think Grayson will survive the time it will take to attempt a rescue, but if he chooses Dick, he <em>knows</em>Drake will die.</span>
</p><p class="p3"><span class="s2">He opens his mouth to say…what he does not know, something, anything to stall for time, when Tim speaks up. “It’s okay Babybat. Its ok.” But it isn’t, it is so far from okay. Looking into Tim’s blue eyes is a mistake, because there is understanding in that gaze and it. It</span>  <span class="s3"> <em>hurts</em> </span> <span class="s2">.</span></p><p class="p3">Damian wants to laugh because if this had happened when he was still fighting his feelings for the other man, when he could brush past the shivers Tim’s very presence gave him he would not be agonizing over this decision. It wouldn’t feel like he’s carving his very heart out trying to decide who he can bear to live without.</p><p class="p3">Drake doesn’t make it easier with his willingness to die to protect them, always the perfect soldier, the consummate hero. It’s almost funny when Damian thinks of how in years past he would of believed that the other Robin would love to give him back to his grandfather.</p><p class="p3">Damian knows what it’s like to live without Dick, he knows what it’s like to think his father is dead. He knows what his own death did to his family, and he knows in a visceral way that Tim’s death will destroy his family, it will break something in Damian that will never heal. Its then that he knows what the answer is. The answer to the question it is obvious in hindsight as the only way he was going to escape this with his soul intact.</p><p class="p3">Peace settles over him. He has a plan now, he has an answer. Swinging his gaze to Dick’s, he whispers an apology. His beloved brother, this will hurt him so much more this time because there will be no bringing him back a second time.</p><p class="p3">Dragging his eyes back to Tim, he gives his decision to him because it’s the only way he will have the strength to do it. “Me. I chose me,” if he cannot chose between Dick and Drake then the only other choice is himself. “ You want to kill someone you kill me”.</p><p class="p3">It’s only because he is looking at Tim when he says it that he sees the reaction his words bring. His entire body tensing in rejection, his face tightening in horror the strangled “Babybat, no”, cracking through his carefully held together resolve.</p><p class="p3">“I cannot say that I ever thought that would be your decision.” Damian doesn’t even acknowledge his grandfather, his focus never leaving his loves.</p><p class="p3">“Baby-, Damian please don’t do this.” His nickname is choked. “We can’t lose you again. <em>I</em>cant lose you again.” His voice breaks as he strains against the bars caging him. He looks devastated, Tim looks how Damian thinks he looks, but no matter the words falling from his lips, all Damian can thick about is that this is the only way. If someone has to die it will be him, but not before Tim knows how he feels.</p><p class="p3">Dragging his gaze away from Drakes he looks at his grandfather- no at Ra’s – there is nothing but blood tying them and Damian has long understood that blood doesn’t make someone family. He feels nothing but spite for the man before him and now that he’s made this choice he wants to know <em>why</em>.</p><p class="p3">“Who did you expect me to choose? My beloved or my brother?” his slip is noted but no surprise crosses the Al Ghuls face. “Were you hoping to break me or my father? What could you possibly have to gain from this?” Decision made and given Damian understands that his time is limited, but if he is going to die then he will die knowing <em>why</em>.</p><p class="p3">Tim is still talking in the background, begging with Ra’s to take him instead, it is futile but Damian understands that Tim cannot not fight this. He imagines he’d feel the same in Tim’s position. Though Tim probably would have figured out a solution that didn’t involve anyone’s death.</p><p class="p3">Humming Ra’s answers, “I thought you’d have chosen your beloved brother Richard, but knowing your complicated,” here he pauses as if searching for the word and glances meaningfully at Drake,  “<em>feelings</em>for Timothy I honestly thought it could go either way.” He had been circling Damian while he talked his hand on the hilt of the sword hanging from his waist, now that he was once again standing in front of him he unsheathed his blade.</p><p class="p3">The sound of steel scraping against steel loud in the warehouse. “your precious Detective gets to watch both of you die, and I get the bonus of ridding my bloodline of your taint. Really this couldn’t have turned out better,” He laughs here, cackling like a supervillain. </p><p class="p3">Damian understands what he is going to do just moments before the naked blade is finding a new home in his chest. Ra’s pushes the sword in achingly slowly, the blade cleaving its way into his lungs with every breath he takes the agony makes him deaf for an eternity, and it is only after the blade is completely sheathed in his chest that he can hear again. Almost immediately he wishes he couldn’t, because he sounds like he’s dying. It would shock him that that is his voice if he could feel anything other than a confusing mixture of mindless agony and the numbness invading his body. It is that which worries him, pain he can handle it is the absence of it that has his heart doing double time.</p><p class="p3">Ra’s attention shifts from Damian to Tim who is quiet, which is somehow worse than the begging, and the threats. He has reached a level of murderous that Damian is pretty sure he’s only ever seen on Jason on a bad day. It should worry him, he thinks it should at least. But his mind is going foggy and blurred around the edges which makes following the conversation impossible and it hurts him to breath because there is still a <em>katana</em>hiltdeep in his chest cavity.</p><p class="p3">Things are bleary and his hearing is fuzzy he thinks he must have blacked out because one moment Tim and Ra’s are knee deep in a contest of will, and the next Cassandra, sweet sweet Cass is shoving a dagger through Ra’s eye socket and rocketing towards the assassins that have their guns trained on Tim. He can’t track the fight because he keeps drifting, he thinks it is because breathing hurts, he thinks he must not be getting enough oxygen.</p><p class="p3">Between one agonizing breath and the next the battle is done and Stephanie who must have been right behind Cass has released Tim and is kneeling next to Dick. Pleading under her breath as she checks vitals and asking for an ambulance in the same breath. Her teary eyes meet Damian’s over Grayson’s body and he understands that she’s worried they are too late. That she is going to lose two brothers.</p><p class="p3">He forgets his sister when Tim grasps his face. His hands are calloused and warm and large where they are digging into his skull. They are nice hands perfect for holding him he thinks muzzily. Tim is talking but the lack of oxygen is affecting his ability to follow things, and the next thing he knows there are paramedics swarming the warehouse.</p><p class="p3">With the paramedics comes the police who astonishingly don’t question the bright spandex and the mess of dead bodies. Dick is strapped to a stretcher and rushed away his team of medics frantically trying to stem the loss of blood. When his team approaches Tim doesn’t move out of their way his hands clench in his hair and he snarls over Damian’s head at someone. He thinks it was a back off or die snarl but Damian has been known to be wrong on occasion.</p><p class="p3">He can barely ground out a “Tim” before he’s back to grasping for breath, but it does the trick and Drake’s eyes are back on his. “Babybat, I’ve got you.”</p><p class="p3">Clearly which is the problem. Damian needs those medics and probably a dozen doctors because he cannot breath. Which Tim must read because he is stepping away from him his hands slipping from his face, and he wants to cry out from the loss, Tim is finally touching him. He threatens someone, cautions someone else and then he’s ushered to the side.</p><p class="p3">The katana has to come out in order to remove the chains, he’s past the point of pain mattering, he thinks there is no way taking the blade out could hurt worse than it going in. he is wrong, he is so wrong. He gets in one deep breath when the sword is gone and then he chokes on blood.</p><p class="p3">Things move very fast after that. The cops don’t bother unlocking the padlock and just cut through the chains. Damian is given his own stretcher and someone is cutting into his chest trying to suction the blood out. The medics don’t even try to keep Tim out.</p><p class="p3">He doesn’t really know what happens after they get on the ambulance because he blacks out again. The last thing he feels is Tim grabbing his hand. The last thing he hears is Tim pleading with him to be ok.</p><p class="p3"> </p><p class="p3"> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>constructive criticism is always welcome and appreciated. Don't hate me for the OCCness of characters, or the hell I put them through, i just really wanted to write Damian being the good one for once. I feel like Tim is acknowledged for having mental health problems but i feel like Damian has some issues as well. and i love the idea of emotional vulnerable Damian.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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